Equating Israel with apartheid is slander or ignorance

It is baffling and disheartening to see articles, movements and protests disparaging Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East and one of our closest allies.

Ari Alexenberg

It is baffling and disheartening to see articles, movements and protests disparaging Israel, the only true democracy in the Middle East and one of our closest allies.

There is nothing wrong with criticizing Israeli policy or for that matter any country's policies. Israel is not perfect, no country is. But Israel gets singled out for criticism far more than it deserves. For example, since the creation of the United Nations Human Rights Council almost as many resolutions condemning Israel have been put forth than the rest of the world combined. Think about that; forget the rest of the world, just consider the countries surrounding Israel. They are dictatorships with little rule of law, horrendous human rights records that include murder, torture, no tolerance for gays, oppression of women and no free press or speech — and Israel is getting condemned. Ironically, Arabs have more rights in Israel than in any Arab country.

I have seen protests in front of the North Church in downtown Portsmouth demonstrating against Israel, when it was defending itself from rockets being launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza. I am increasingly hearing about the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement calling for a boycott of Israel, and I see interviews and read newspaper articles labeling Israel as either an apartheid state or a country that might become one.

President Obama articulated why using apartheid and Israel in the same sentence is unwise when he said, "There's no doubt that Israel and the Palestinians have tough issues to work out to get to the goal of two states living side by side in peace and security, but injecting a term like apartheid into the discussion doesn't advance that goal. It's emotionally loaded, historically inaccurate, and it's not what I believe."

Mingling the concept of apartheid and Israel is either slander or ignorance.

Here is the truth, exposed by a few facts that annihilate the notion that Israel resembles even remotely the old South African apartheid regime. There is an Arab on Israel's supreme court, Arabs are elected and serve in Israel's parliament, Arabs have been appointed as cabinet members as well as ambassadors, last year's valedictorian at Israel's most prestigious technical university was an Arab woman, Israeli Arab Christians score higher on their post high school matriculation exams than Israeli Jews, an Arab has won the Miss Israel beauty pageant, Arabs are captains of professional sports teams, a Druze is the commander of the Israeli army's elite Golani brigade, and I can go on and on. Within Israel, all citizens (approximately 20 percent of Israeli citizens are Arab) have equal rights under the law. The exception is that Arabs are not required to serve in the Israeli military (though many do), so that they will not have to take up arms against other Arabs.

The West Bank and Gaza are a different situation. The West Bank and Gaza are not part of Israel and the Arabs living there are not Israeli citizens. The final statuses of these territories have not been determined and are subject to a peace agreement between the Palestinians and Israel. The vast majority of the West Bank Arabs are governed by the Palestinian Authority and all of the people in Gaza are governed by Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S., European Union, U.K., Australia and Japan. The Israeli military is in the West Bank because if it wasn't, Israel would be bombarded by rockets and terrorist attacks.

Israel left Gaza entirely in 2005 and now has to endure Hamas on its border, a radical Islamic terror organization. Hamas explicitly calls for killing Jews and eliminating Israel, and this year already over 100 rockets have been launched from Gaza on Israeli cities. Israel entirely left Lebanon in 2000 and it now has the Iran-backed terrorist organization Hezbollah on its northern border. Hezbollah is armed with 200,000 rockets aimed at Israel and also calls for killing Jews and for Israel's destruction. It is clear that Israel cannot leave the West Bank until it has guaranteed security for its civilians and assurance that there will be an enduring peace. Recently, the "moderate" Palestinian Authority and Hamas have agreed to form a unity government, reinforcing Israel's long-term security concerns. Tragically for the Palestinians, their leadership and the Arab league cannot make the most rudimentary compromise that is the essence of any peace agreement, acknowledging that Israel is and will be the nation state, the homeland, of the Jewish people. The Israeli government has made this difficult but essential concession, stating that it supports "two states for two people."

So why aren't there weekly articles criticizing Saudi Arabia as an apartheid state or protests in the center of Portsmouth protesting Hamas' treatment of Christians, gays and women or calls to boycott the vast majority of countries in the world with much worse human rights records than Israel?

Like I said, it is either slander or ignorance.

Here is some context on the increasing use in the 21st century of labeling Israel with the apartheid slur. It can be traced to the World Conference Against Racism held in Durban, South Africa, in September 2001. The purpose of the conference was largely ignored and devolved into an Israel hatefest. In the words of South Africa's then Deputy Foreign Minister Aziz Pahad, the conference "was hijacked and used by some with an anti-Israel agenda to turn into an anti-Semitic event." Out of the conference emerged the Durban Strategy, whose goal is to delegitimize Israel through a variety of means. One tactic is the BDS movement calling for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel. In order to mobilize the BDS movement, Israel is branded as an apartheid regime. The leaders of the movement, such as Omar Barghouti and Nabil Sha'att, are few but they have gained a following by disingenuously using human rights as a cover for their ultimate goal of destroying Israel. The followers often don't realize that they are tools of a slanderous campaign.

This context is critical in understanding the truth, that the BDS movement and the term apartheid against Israel is part of a bigger campaign to delegitimize Israel. Many well-meaning people engaging in this campaign are simply ignorant of the larger context. I hope they educate themselves and ask themselves if they are being pawns in a game of hate. Ask themselves are they really bringing peace closer or are they poisoning the waters of peace by demoralizing those who are willing to work for it and emboldening those trying to destroy it.

Portsmouth resident Ari Alexenberg is the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New Hampshire.

Advertise

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
seacoastonline.com ~ 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service